Down by the Port ~ Sunday, February 20, 2011

The welcome sign to our town, Redwood City, CA proudly proclaims it to be a world port. The port is a narrow strip of land jutting out into San Francisco Bay, over which a road and a spur line connect to ship loading facilities and a few industries.


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Those strangely-colored regions are salt evaporator ponds, at various stages of their process.

Taking advantage of the first sunny day after several of steady rain, Nathan and I visited the port area to find a geocache. Nearby, we encountered an old centercab diesel, Port of RWC #1:



The ship in the background was being loaded with some sort of bulk material via conveyor:



Nearby was an occasionally used, but unlocked switch and switchstand, so I had a chance to show Nathan how these things work (both branching tracks went through locked chain link gates, so I had no worry that a train was going to come rolling through without stopping and head the wrong way because of our meddling).